Low traffic? Try these 6 low-cost marketing tactics!

Growth is a proposition that almost every operator is concerned about. Without growth, you basically cannot survive. This is a cruel reality.

Fortunately, with the rise of growth hackers and the prevalence of traffic pool thinking, everyone seems to have found a life-saving straw, but whether this straw is strong enough depends on your understanding of users and their needs.

Yes, growth hacking and traffic pooling are not as simple as analyzing data and formulating strategies. Instead, it is necessary to understand the user’s psychology: Why should I spread your activity? Why should I buy your product?

In other words, we should return to an area that was once valued but is now somewhat neglected: marketing.

Regarding marketing, many people think that it is a combination of some conversion methods. In fact, it is a science or even an art that focuses on user psychology.

There is a book that summarizes the art of marketing very well and extracts six elements: reciprocity, commitment consistency, authority, conformity, liking, and scarcity. This book is "Influence".

So, how are the six elements of influence applied in the field of marketing?

1. Reciprocity

The principle of "reciprocity" is that when someone gives you benefits, you take advantage of them, but you will feel a sense of indebtedness in your heart, which makes you want to repay the other person.

This is because others want to give you benefits, which is not easy to come by, but you may not cherish things that are easy to get, so you will want to "repay" the "favor" given to you by others.

It is based on this principle that we have the free trials, group purchases, lucky draws and other gameplay that we are familiar with.

For example, in a common lottery, the organizer of the event will let some people win the prize first, and then attract another group of people to buy, and the winners often become word-of-mouth spreaders of the lottery.

For example, Pinduoduo, which started out as a group buying platform, will tell you that products are discounted, but will require you to forward it to your friends and invite more people to join the group buying, which will increase the difficulty of obtaining the discount.

Because it is difficult to get discounts, users will cherish them, and this difficulty is to attract more people, complete fission, and increase sales.

It can be said that one of the major principles of fission is "reciprocity". Any kind of fission gameplay can be realized by "reciprocity", such as sharing a discount with friends, inviting friends to get a discount each, etc.

In fact, part of the marketing task is to establish connections between people, and "reciprocity" can establish more connections, which obviously meets the requirements of marketing. Therefore, thinking and designing preferential methods from the perspective of reciprocity will be of great help to growth.

2. Commitment Consistency

The so-called "commitment" is the merchant's guarantee, which promises the effects of the user's actions and tells the user that they can get the expected results after taking action.

For example, the reading training camp of Circle Outside Classmates, the main title "14 days to help you read "Principles" thoroughly" and the various nouns and effect descriptions listed in the course outline all use "commitment" to tell users what they can get if they persist for 14 days, satisfy their inner expectations, and motivate users to take action.

However, "promise" alone is not enough, "consistency" is also needed, that is, the merchant fulfills the promise. But why do many users not believe it? The reason is that merchants’ promises are often “inconsistent”.

Only when "commitment consistency" is achieved will users have a slight trust. Please remember that it is a slight trust, which means they will consider giving it a try.

So how do we achieve "commitment consistency"? One method is to make a commitment in the front and then provide common-sense-accepted safeguards or success stories that can achieve the commitment in the back.

For example, a simple way is to post positive reviews from users who have used a product in the past, as well as pictures of the results after use. This is called "customer testimonials."

Another example is the reading check-in product, which incorporates the element of "commitment consistency" into the product design, such as "punch in for xx days and get tuition refunded", "punch in for xx days and get cash", etc.

By using "promise consistency", users will increase their trust in your product, thereby increasing their desire to participate, which is good for conversions.

3. Authority

Users can easily develop a strong sense of trust in "authority", which can be said to be "built-in trust". There are many types of "authority", such as expert testimony, test reports, qualification certificates, celebrity recommendations, etc.

The role of "authority" in marketing is to transfer the "authority" attribute to specific activities, products and services, and then pass it on to users. This is called trust transfer.

Many of the promotional posters we see use the word "authority".

For example, well-known sharers or influential opinion leaders can be displayed as backgrounds; the most eye-catching titles such as world champion can be highlighted in the copy to match the content being shared; the professionalism of the sharer can be emphasized, and the recommendations of famous universities and companies such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Harvard, as well as some big names, can be highlighted to reduce the user's decision-making costs, etc.

Through these processing techniques, users will naturally believe in the authenticity of these authoritative figures, companies, famous brands, etc. because they are familiar with them, and thus achieve the purpose of conversion.

It can be said that this is a common trick that has been tried and tested and has always worked.

However, the Advertising Law now has strict regulations on the authenticity of "authority". In some industries, this element is not even allowed to be used unless factual proof can be provided. This undoubtedly increases the difficulty for those who want to use "authority".

4. Follow the crowd

"Conformity" or social identity is an inherent human psychology. Why do we say that? For example.

Why do you want to memorize words when you see others memorizing words and checking in on their WeChat Moments? Why do you want to follow the example of people around you and work out when you see fitness pictures on your friends’ circle?

This is because people are accustomed to using the behavior and thoughts of others as a reference standard, especially when there are uncertainties.

For example, when you can’t make up your mind, you are more likely to agree with others because the people around you are very similar and have a significant impact on your decision-making.

This obviously gives marketing more room for use, because conformity is also based on the connection and trust between people. So how is "conformity" applied?

The first is to use user stories to create a scenario that everyone likes and uses.

The second method is to use user voices or data to increase the credibility and number of registrations for the product. A typical approach is to add "xxx people have registered" to a poster.

The third type is used by many knowledge-based paid products, such as releasing a large number of user messages, timely updating of "xx has been purchased" information, etc.

It can be seen that "following the crowd" is very conducive to conversion and is an essential marketing element.

5. Preferences

Why is it that your product seems to meet the needs, has good packaging and good quality, but no users buy it? The answer is that you don’t create a feeling of fear or terror in the user, and this can be achieved by leveraging “likes”.

Because for users, "dislike" can cause fear and remind them of pain points, while "like" can keep them away from this pain. For example, many real estate agents will show you bad houses first and then recommend good houses, which is based on this principle.

In other words, "dislike" equals "you are sick", while "like" equals "I have medicine".

The commonly used "fear-type copywriting" highlights the user's current fear and provides solutions to resolve it. It is a typical application of "preferences".

For example, if there is a question about books like “How long has it been since you finished reading a book?”, a motivated person would be startled when seeing it. Everyone around him is reading and learning and making progress, but he is the only one standing still. Naturally, he would feel anxious. But when he sees the question “Join the plan now”, he might sign up without hesitation.

Other typical applications of "preference" are the endowment effect and loss aversion. The former states that when something is about to be lost, it becomes more valuable than others, while the latter states that the pain of losing something is greater than the happiness of gaining it.

By using these two applications, users can be told what they will lose if they do not take action, or what extra they will get if they take action (such as extra premium information), thereby promoting purchases.

For example, the New World Marketing Course, which once went viral, had a setting of "a price increase of 5 yuan for every 10,000 people who purchase it", which made users think that "if they don't sign up, they will lose the opportunity to buy the course at a low price", greatly promoting the sales of the course.

Therefore, "preferences" are very effective, especially in copywriting and pricing strategies, and can help boost product growth.

6. Scarcity

When selling products, adopting strategies such as time limits and quota limits will often cause users to scramble for orders, and this is all due to "scarcity".

The so-called "scarcity" means that when items or opportunities become scarce, people will think they are more valuable and more desirable, thus driving others to buy them.

The principle behind it is simple, because only "scarcity" can create a sense of urgency, and a sense of urgency is more motivating to people than "desire to get it".

The application of "scarcity" in marketing is more reflected in quantity and time, that is, limited time and limit, such as only for xx days, limited to xx people, the first xxx people free, etc.

For example, the poster of Haifeng Education below, while keeping it free, adds “limited to 500 places per day” to create a sense of urgency among users, further increasing the possibility of users’ willingness to act and greatly reducing decision-making costs. This is a very effective means.

In addition, the sense of exclusivity can also reflect "scarcity", which is why some people use words such as exclusive and first release.

However, the essence of "scarcity" is not that the quantity or time is limited, but that resources or items are difficult to satisfy compared to people's infinite desires. If they are difficult to satisfy, it is easy to dampen users' curiosity, expectations, and enthusiasm, causing them to lose confidence and interest.

Therefore, the setting of "scarcity" should be reasonable. It should not be too high, otherwise it is easy to give up, nor should it be too low, otherwise there will be no motivation.

The above is the application of the six elements of influence in marketing.

VII. Conclusion

In an era of high traffic and weak growth, we cannot only focus on the growth hacker thinking that looks purely at data, nor can we rely solely on operational strategies based on traffic pool thinking. Basic marketing skills are also essential.

Only by combining growth hacking, traffic pools, and traditional marketing can growth be explosive and at low cost, but this is only a possibility. I hope it will become a necessity in the future.

Finally, let’s summarize the specific application of the six elements of influence:

• Mutual benefit: free trial, lucky draw, group purchase fission
• Commitment consistency: customer testimonials, success stories, cashback for check-ins
• Authority: recommended by big names, famous schools and companies, well-known titles
• Follow the crowd: user stories, lots of comments, sales updates
• Likes: Fear copywriting, endowment effect, loss aversion
• Scarcity: limited time, limited quota, user exclusive

Source: Dugu Operation